There are countless cool things that we can do with our Palm devices, but are limited by that damned non-standard connector. As someone else stated, I don't want to spend $50+ just to chop up a cable. Where can we get just the dongles? Anyone? Could Palm make them available to developers cheap, so we can make new, cool, applications for this very neat platform?
We'll have our 'free' patch of the internet...
on
Geographic Screening
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· Score: 1
...everyone else will have to make their own. The fact is, Canada has slightly more free definitions of copyright, personal freedom, and government regulation (at least regarding the internet).
I completely support iCravetv.com in this case, since what they are doing is legal in Canada under CRTC guidelines, but not the US.
If Americans want an internet with more personal rights and freedoms than corperate ones, they'll have to fight for it. Unfortunately the global reach of your laws means that we have to segment these divisions to keep the rights that our national laws give us. Even if iCrave could have won the case (which I doubt, not because of the validity, but because of a clueless American legal and patent system) the lawyers could shut them down regardless of 'right and wrong'.
The Wired News article stating the true value of the deal is available here
What does that work out to per Slashdot reader, I wonder?
Hey! We're all geeks here... relax.
on
RIAA Sues MP3.com
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· Score: 1
Hey, hoser. Chill.
You trying to make us look dumb, or what?
The good 'ol Canada vs. US argument can be found on plenty of places on Usenet, I don't need to see them here.
It looks to me like little of what you said actually has much to do with MP3.com - and it seems the two of us are sloshed just to stay warm (frick - it's cold here!) but I'm not about to make an ass out of myself.
... I admit that the pricing to upgrade from 5.0 to 5.5 was a bit steep (especially if you owned Photoshop *and* ImageReady - in which case, it should have been dirt cheap).
However the 'webiness' (using hex values to choose colours), improved typographical control (3 different anti-aliasing methods, etc...), and other features make it worth it for those that use it for the better part of the working day.
Modern corporations - Microsoft comes to mind - are not intrinsically evil, and have no political or ideological goals beyond money, but they are frighteningly powerful and influential, bigger than most governments on the planet and obvlivious (sic) to their own impact on creativity, freedom and individualism.
I disagree. Unless a corporation has some compassion, or an agenda outside of simple profit (and the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive), it *is*, in fact, a form of evil. Not outright, but apathy is an evil in itself. Dante put the 'indifferent' in the first level of hell, and most 'thinkers' agree to some extent.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
Umm...it looks like the resolution from the photos is still running at 800x600. Pretty sad for a 21' monitor. Is there a way to up it? Or has he just wasted a week of his time?
...but they're starting to seem like the company that cried wolf. In school I used an Amiga and a Video Toaster for compositing, and it was a damned fine machine. Really. But it seems like they can't get their act together. We've been waiting nearly forever for them to resurrect themselves. And it's never happened.
I think it's time to let it go... flame me if you want, but that's what I think. Sorry.
*cough, cough* Ok, not quite, but I can't even imagine looking at it through a dial-up.
Wow, what a chock full-o-^$%! site.
It's pretty, but in terms of actually using it - I'd much prefer sites like Slashdot, which while not paragons of aesthetic vision, are easy to use. Jakob Neilsen's Useit.com is a good example of a site with no graphics, but easy to use. It also is a great resource for web designers, and should be in their bookmarks.
I've been a contractor for 3 1/2 years at the same place. More than half of our branch "employees" are contractors, leaving just management and secrataries. We are treated like employees but paid better than we would be as civil servants (it's government). Most of us have stayed for a long time because the work is interesting, and we actually have a say in some things. There are some issues, however:
1- Generally employees should be hired for critical tasks.
I love the people I work for, and what I do - but if someone offered my twice the salary, I'd leave. Simple as that. I have about 4 major projects that would be left hanging, and they would have a very difficult time replacing me. We've had difficulty just hiring some to "assist" on our team, never mind being "senior". Mind you, I'd likely wrap up my projects cleanly, or at least give them a chance to salary-match. (Otherwise, it's just not professional)
That said, if you're really happy with a contractor, and you can give them a competitive salary, offer to make them an employee... it strengthens the loyalty somewhat. Because...,
2- Contractors generally know more.
Like I said, less managment and admin, almost all the major work is done by contractors. Government employees, despite the constant (free) training, just don't keep up. They took a gov't job for the stability - not to spend hours a week just to keep up to date. Contractors are in it for the money and the tech, both of which require keeping ahead of the game.
3- Listen to them, even if you don't think they have a vested interest.
Nobody want's to be associated with a failed project, and they all want to be part of success stories, so if they are really telling you something is stupid, don't ignore it completely. (The same can't be said for contracted companies though... there's less personal reputation at stake)
4- Always have them onsite.
Offsite contractors are just difficult to manage, and communications break down. Simple as that.
5- Make them feel part of the team.
They helped too, and everyone likes a pat on the back for a job well done. Don't overlook them just because you assume they know their contribution. If everyone else in the team got a token, but not them, they'd feel pretty bad. I know it sounds like a small, silly thing (Dilbert-related), but it helps.
Ok, granted, Linux has a *lot* of hype. Maybe more than it deserves. But there are two important differences between Linux and Java.
1- Linux has developers already 2- Linux has open standards and source
Basically this means that the developers - who are actually using Linux can bend and twist it to fit their need. Sun needed to convince developers, and then jerked people around about the source code and license, then trying to get ISO certification (or was it IEEE?...whatever):-p
So I don't think the same fate applies. Linux will be around for a while and should do some great things. But then, I'm preaching to the choir - aren't I?
There was a stupid email going around in Canada a while back, saying Canada Post was going to tax email. It made me think about the situation a little bit.
Anyway...some thoughts (not entirely lucid, but it's late...)
1) How could they tax email? 2) We already pay for access (companies don't maintain the backbone out of the goodness of their hearts). 3) Even if they taxed the ISPs who passed on the costs to us, they couldn't tax actual usage (could they?!?)
This looks more tempting than the cheesy MS "offer".
Note, their server is down. I wonder if it's a DoS attack. Against the rules, but funny though.
What typographer sold his soul on that one?
on
SGIs Linux Future
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· Score: 1
I don't like the new one very much either. The typography is very "gimmicky". Having the letterforms one half curve-ended, and one half square-ended is just silly. And that "g"...eww...
I thought Apple was releasing *new* specs. This is about a month old. You had me going there.
Dropped the ball on this one guys?
Also, as I write this Steve Jobs is giving a keynote at Macworld Expo in New York. Maybe he will actually release something new there...perhaps the "consumer portable"...the iMac of laptops. Now maybe you'll have something new to report. (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/showcase/live/mwny99/)
I don't know what's it's availability is in the States right now (it's Canadian), but I find that Shift is now what Wired used to be. There are no articles about the "mergers and acquisitions", only great stuff about technologies role in society.
I think it's a great magazine (and I don't even work for them!).
As a Linux newbie who installed RH6, maybe I can add my $0.02...
Hell - I didn't even know I had to configure them seperately...or maybe I did and didn't know it.:-p
Anyway...GNOME crashed. Or Enlightenment crashed. Or Netscape crashed. Whomever. They just wouldn't run together on my clunky machine - I don't care whose fault it was.
I switched to FVWM2 and nothing crashes anymore. This makes my happy. E sure looked nice, but I was more concerned with reliability, and FVWM seems to be providing it.
Slashdot Mirror
There are countless cool things that we can do with our Palm devices, but are limited by that damned non-standard connector. As someone else stated, I don't want to spend $50+ just to chop up a cable. Where can we get just the dongles? Anyone? Could Palm make them available to developers cheap, so we can make new, cool, applications for this very neat platform?
I completely support iCravetv.com in this case, since what they are doing is legal in Canada under CRTC guidelines, but not the US.
If Americans want an internet with more personal rights and freedoms than corperate ones, they'll have to fight for it. Unfortunately the global reach of your laws means that we have to segment these divisions to keep the rights that our national laws give us. Even if iCrave could have won the case (which I doubt, not because of the validity, but because of a clueless American legal and patent system) the lawyers could shut them down regardless of 'right and wrong'.
What does that work out to per Slashdot reader, I wonder?
Hey, hoser. Chill.
You trying to make us look dumb, or what?
The good 'ol Canada vs. US argument can be found on plenty of places on Usenet, I don't need to see them here.
It looks to me like little of what you said actually has much to do with MP3.com - and it seems the two of us are sloshed just to stay warm (frick - it's cold here!) but I'm not about to make an ass out of myself.
However the 'webiness' (using hex values to choose colours), improved typographical control (3 different anti-aliasing methods, etc...), and other features make it worth it for those that use it for the better part of the working day.
I disagree. Unless a corporation has some compassion, or an agenda outside of simple profit (and the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive), it *is*, in fact, a form of evil. Not outright, but apathy is an evil in itself. Dante put the 'indifferent' in the first level of hell, and most 'thinkers' agree to some extent.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
Umm...it looks like the resolution from the photos is still running at 800x600. Pretty sad for a 21' monitor. Is there a way to up it? Or has he just wasted a week of his time?
...sorry...couldn't help it. -m
I think it's time to let it go... flame me if you want, but that's what I think. Sorry.
Wow, what a chock full-o-^$%! site.
It's pretty, but in terms of actually using it - I'd much prefer sites like Slashdot, which while not paragons of aesthetic vision, are easy to use. Jakob Neilsen's Useit.com is a good example of a site with no graphics, but easy to use. It also is a great resource for web designers, and should be in their bookmarks.
Sorry Jon, nothing really innovative here.
1- Generally employees should be hired for critical tasks.
I love the people I work for, and what I do - but if someone offered my twice the salary, I'd leave. Simple as that. I have about 4 major projects that would be left hanging, and they would have a very difficult time replacing me. We've had difficulty just hiring some to "assist" on our team, never mind being "senior". Mind you, I'd likely wrap up my projects cleanly, or at least give them a chance to salary-match. (Otherwise, it's just not professional)
That said, if you're really happy with a contractor, and you can give them a competitive salary, offer to make them an employee... it strengthens the loyalty somewhat. Because...,
2- Contractors generally know more.
Like I said, less managment and admin, almost all the major work is done by contractors. Government employees, despite the constant (free) training, just don't keep up. They took a gov't job for the stability - not to spend hours a week just to keep up to date. Contractors are in it for the money and the tech, both of which require keeping ahead of the game.
3- Listen to them, even if you don't think they have a vested interest.
Nobody want's to be associated with a failed project, and they all want to be part of success stories, so if they are really telling you something is stupid, don't ignore it completely. (The same can't be said for contracted companies though... there's less personal reputation at stake)
4- Always have them onsite.
Offsite contractors are just difficult to manage, and communications break down. Simple as that.
5- Make them feel part of the team.
They helped too, and everyone likes a pat on the back for a job well done. Don't overlook them just because you assume they know their contribution. If everyone else in the team got a token, but not them, they'd feel pretty bad. I know it sounds like a small, silly thing (Dilbert-related), but it helps.
Ok, granted, Linux has a *lot* of hype. Maybe more than it deserves. But there are two important differences between Linux and Java.
:-p
1- Linux has developers already
2- Linux has open standards and source
Basically this means that the developers - who are actually using Linux can bend and twist it to fit their need. Sun needed to convince developers, and then jerked people around about the source code and license, then trying to get ISO certification (or was it IEEE?...whatever)
So I don't think the same fate applies. Linux will be around for a while and should do some great things. But then, I'm preaching to the choir - aren't I?
-m
...and make millions! Buwahahaha!
Methinks that Unisys is having some serious cash troubles to do something as stupid as this.
Time to dump your Unisys stock.
There was a stupid email going around in Canada a while back, saying Canada Post was going to tax email. It made me think about the situation a little bit.
Anyway...some thoughts (not entirely lucid, but it's late...)
1) How could they tax email?
2) We already pay for access (companies don't maintain the backbone out of the goodness of their hearts).
3) Even if they taxed the ISPs who passed on the costs to us, they couldn't tax actual usage (could they?!?)
I keep having these nightmares that Bill Gates is going to buy Andover.net and turn all the Linux sites in NT sites!
"Buy em out boys!" Bill Gates - The Simpsons
I meant Microsoft's is down.
This looks more tempting than the cheesy MS "offer".
Note, their server is down. I wonder if it's a DoS attack. Against the rules, but funny though.
I don't like the new one very much either. The typography is very "gimmicky". Having the letterforms one half curve-ended, and one half square-ended is just silly. And that "g"...eww...
Dropped the ball on this one guys?
Also, as I write this Steve Jobs is giving a keynote at Macworld Expo in New York. Maybe he will actually release something new there...perhaps the "consumer portable"...the iMac of laptops. Now maybe you'll have something new to report. (http://www.apple.com/quicktime /showcase/live/mwny99/)
On the subject of the 'new' machine: I want one.
I don't know what's it's availability is in the States right now (it's Canadian), but I find that Shift is now what Wired used to be. There are no articles about the "mergers and acquisitions", only great stuff about technologies role in society.
I think it's a great magazine (and I don't even work for them!).
Hey believe it or not, some /. readers are artists or graphic designers by trade. We're not all code-heads, you know. :-)
I thought so too.
Umm... didn't Microsoft "invest" in RealNetworks to the tune of $10 million, grab all the knowledge they could, and then screw them over?
I have this sinking feeling. This seems like Bill Gates pissing on Philippe Kahns corpse.
As a Linux newbie who installed RH6, maybe I can add my $0.02...
:-p
Hell - I didn't even know I had to configure them seperately...or maybe I did and didn't know it.
Anyway...GNOME crashed. Or Enlightenment crashed. Or Netscape crashed. Whomever. They just wouldn't run together on my clunky machine - I don't care whose fault it was.
I switched to FVWM2 and nothing crashes anymore. This makes my happy. E sure looked nice, but I was more concerned with reliability, and FVWM seems to be providing it.